I have been the biggest James Wiseman apologist, and only now after watching him a lot with Detroit, I can admit, maybe the Warriors and the NBA are better talent evaluators than I am. Defensively, he is really only good at one thing, standing in the restricted area, and blocking shots. Basically, elementary school level defense for the tallest guy on the court. Otherwise, he just wanders loosely near the closest guy. He has no feel, instinct or looks like desire of getting dirty, bodying up, and playing defense. He appears to hate contact of any kind. Regrettably, he's not "the guy." I don't know that those are traits you can teach or that a player can learn. I can't think of an example of a player that could not defend, then he became good at defense. If he was average? Yeah, the he might be something. Offensively, dude sets pillow screens. He bails on almost every screen BEFORE the contact, just looks chicken. i really hate to say these things, because i lambasted Kerr for so long, for not playing him. But, now I have to eat crow. Yeah, I think offensively, he's got some skills. But, just hard to play winning basketball if your 'big' cannot defend at all. I do wish him the best, and he figures out how to assemble some defense chops. I had hoped GS would keep him and continue to develop him, but at the luxury tax cost of over 100M next year, yeah I can see, that is quite an expensive "project."
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Golden State SHouldnt have let go of James Wiseman. That guy has so much potential they didnt let him play. Stupid move by Golden State
I have been the biggest James Wiseman apologist, and only now after watching him a lot with Detroit, I can admit, maybe the Warriors and the NBA are better talent evaluators than I am. Defensively, he is really only good at one thing, standing in the restricted area, and blocking shots. Basically, elementary school level defense for the tallest guy on the court. Otherwise, he just wanders loosely near the closest guy. He has no feel, instinct or looks like desire of getting dirty, bodying up, and playing defense. He appears to hate contact of any kind. Regrettably, he's not "the guy." I don't know that those are traits you can teach or that a player can learn. I can't think of an example of a player that could not defend, then he became good at defense. If he was average? Yeah, the he might be something. Offensively, dude sets pillow screens. He bails on almost every screen BEFORE the contact, just looks chicken. i really hate to say these things, because i lambasted Kerr for so long, for not playing him. But, now I have to eat crow. Yeah, I think offensively, he's got some skills. But, just hard to play winning basketball if your 'big' cannot defend at all. I do wish him the best, and he figures out how to assemble some defense chops. I had hoped GS would keep him and continue to develop him, but at the luxury tax cost of over 100M next year, yeah I can see, that is quite an expensive "project."